BSO/Classical New England — 2020/11/14

This week WCRB follows their new pattern of giving us the concert that was performed exactly five years ago. This means that today we can hear

Saturday at 8pm, Christoph von Dohnányi leads the BSO in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with soloist Martin Helmchen, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and the world premiere of Jean-Frédéric Neuburger's BSO-commissioned Aube ("Dawn").

Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020
8:00 PM

Originally broadcast on Saturday, November 14, 2015

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Martin Helmchen, piano

NEUBURGER Aube ("Dawn") (world premiere; BSO commission)
BARTOK Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"

Five years ago I wrote:

Another week, another premiere by the Boston Symphony. This time, it's not merely the American premiere, but the world premiere that they'll give. The work in question is titled Aube, and it's by young Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Then we step back in time for Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. After the intermission, the orchestra and guest conductor Christoph von Dohnányi are joined by pianist Martin Helmchen for the masterful Piano Concerto № 5, "Emperor," by Beethoven. The orchestra's performance detail pageadds a bit more to my description with the following:

Frequent BSO guest conductor Christoph von Dohnányi leads the world premiere of Aube ("Dawn"), a BSO-commissioned work by the celebrated 28-year-old French composer Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Neuburger's compositional voice is rooted in the brilliant colors and energy of his French predecessors from Ravel to Boulez. An iconic 20th-century masterpiece, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta epitomizes the composer's genius for mood and form. To close the program, German pianist Martin Helmchen plays Beethoven's majestic and high-spirited Emperor Concerto.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer presents a gushing review. The reviewer's analysis of the pieces in the concert could be read alongside the program notes and audio previews. His interpretation of their cosmic significance is unexpected, but not unprecedented in music reviews. The Globe has a very favorable review, devoted mostly to the new piece — which the reviewer liked — but with praise for the performance of the remaining works as well.

My take on what I heard Thursday evening is at once less analytic and less expansive. "Aube" was not unpleasant to listen to, although there were no clear, sustained "tunes" that I recall. It was clearly an organized succession of sounds (unlike some of the truly unpleasant stuff I've occasionally sat through), so it fits the definition of music. I didn't really "get it" on that first hearing. The question of whether there's anything there to get can only be answered with further hearings, so I'm looking forward to hearing it again on Saturday. The composer was warmly applauded (and applauded the orchestra), but didn't seem to want to remain on stage and bask  in it. About the Bartók I'll say I was pleasantly surprised at how listenable it was. The program note spoke at length about how the first movement takes a theme and moves it around the "circle of fifths," starting with A and ending with E flat, and then goes back to A with the theme inverted. Listening to it, I couldn't have told you that either of those things was happening, which tells you something about how untrained my ear is, and perhaps how skillfully Bartók works it.

Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto is one of my favorite pieces. When I went to college, my freshman roommate had a recording of the "Emperor," Van Cliburn I think, that he'd put on his record player every Sunday morning. The machine had a defect: when it finished playing a side, it would return the needle to a point one inch in from the edge, over and over. The result was that Sunday after Sunday I'd hear multiple repeats of the last 3/4 of the first movement. Once in a while he'd play the second side. It was wonderful to hear that great music so much. One time, when I was at the monastery, I put on a record of the "Emperor," and for some reason I found myself actually moved to tears a some point in the slow second movement. That hasn't happened again. My dad always loved the transition from the second to the third movement. When we had the record on during dinner, he'd silence us to listen to the quiet end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd and then the forte statement of the triumphant main theme — a masterful moment to be sure.

I liked the performance on Thursday. There wasn't anything truly outstanding that I noticed. One thing I liked was that the pianist varied his dynamics very well. Soft passages, in particular, were really soft. Of course the loud parts were really loud as well. Overall, it was great music, beautifully presented.

You can listen on line or on air via WCRB at 8:00 p.m. EST (Boston Time, as I call it) today, November 14. The station's BSO page gives a link to interview material with conductor and pianist.

(Edited for relevance.)

The first half should at least be interesting and tolerable, and the "Emperor" Concerto is not to be missed.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/11/07

 This week's encore broadcast is the concert originally performed five years ago — November 7, 2015 — one week after the one we heard last week. Maybe this will be the pattern for a while.

WCRB summarizes the concert as follows:

Saturday at 8pm in an encore broadcast of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ken-David Masur leads Schumann's Symphony No. 3, the "Rhenish," as well as the American premiere of Unsuk Chin's Mannequin and Liszt's Totentanz, with piano soloist Louie Lortie.

(Some emphasis added.)

WCRB lists the pieces is reverse order of performance. Read the transcript of the interview with the conductor if/when you have time.

And here, suitably edited, is what I wrote five years ago:

This week we have one work that is considered standard repertory but one I don't often hear, Liszt's Totentanz, one piece getting its American premiere in these concerts, Mannequin by Unsuk Chin, and an old favorite, Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish," by Schumann. Indulging their penchant for describing the pieces in an order other than that in which they'll be performed, the writers of the BSO program description page,describe the concert as follows:

BSO Assistant Conductor Ken-David Masur leads the second BSO co-commission of the season, Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Mannequin in its American premiere. Mannequin was inspired by a short story by the great 19th-century German music critic and fantasist E.T.A. Hoffmann. Opening the program is Franz Lizst's dark and virtuosic Totentanz, played by French pianist Louis Lortie. Totentanz is considered among the most difficult pieces in the standard repertoire for piano and orchestra. Closing these concerts is Robert Schumann's innovatively structured paean to the Rhine River, the composer's Symphony No. 3.

Join the conversation online by using #BSOLiszt for this concert series or #BSO1516 on your social networks to discover the excitement of the season and connect with one another!

(Some emphasis added.)

…

Reviews were mixed. The Globe's was generally favorable, but found Maestro Masur's conducting in the older pieces unexciting. The Boston Musical Intelligencer really liked the "Totentanz," and found no fault with the conductor there, while joining the Globe in disappointment with his leadership in the Schumann. As for "Mannequin," the reviewer found little difference between the four movements.

I was there on Thursday and found the Liszt spectacular. The Chin piece was suitable as a depiction of a frightened frame of mind, but apart from the music-box-like elements in the first movement, there didn't seem to be much difference between the four — at least not at first hearing. I'll listen tonight over the radio and see if there's more distinction between the scenes. I wonder if the large variety of percussion, including some unconventional items, was really necessary. Still, since it was suitable as a depiction of a frightened mood, I applauded the composer enthusiastically. As for the Schumann, it's really enjoyable music to listen to, and I didn't find any fault with how it was conducted: I just liked hearing it.

So I think it worth your while to listen this evening, November 7, at 8:00, Boston Time (EST), … over the radio or internet streaming of WCRB. As you know if you've been following my posts on the BSO, WCRB also has a BSO page of their own. …

Anyway, I was glad to be at the concert, and I'm looking forward to hearing the first two pieces this evening before my kid brother's call from Tokyo ….  As is usually the case, I recommend listening to this one.

8:00 p.m., EST, WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/31

WCRB tells us that this evening's encore broadcast (and webstream) is of the concert of November 7, 2015. This is clearly an error. The orchestra's subscriber booklet for the year gives us October 31 as the Saturday on which this music was performed, and what I wrote at the time reflects that timing:

This week's Boston Symphony is pleasant music throughout — nothing challenging for listeners or, I suppose, performers, with music by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, and Schubert.  We read, on their performance detail page:

Violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman returns to the BSO podium in both roles in two short, beautiful Tchaikovsky works for violin and orchestra [Mélodie and Sérénade Mélancolique], and to lead the composer's famous Serenade for Strings. Edward Elgar's warmhearted Chanson de nuit is one of two brief pieces originally for solo violin and piano (the other being Chanson de matin), later rescored for orchestra. Franz Schubert wrote his charming, four-movement Symphony No. 5 when he was just nineteen. Its balance of materials and control of the orchestra show the influence of Mozart and Beethoven.

…

(Some emphasis added.)

See that page also for links to audio previews, program notes, their new "media center," and performer bio for Mr. Zukerman. Surprisingly, two of the five pieces are getting their first performances by the BSO — the two curtain raisers by Tchaikovsky — and the Elgar was never played by them in Symphony Hall.

As of this writing, there is no review yet in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The Boston Globe has an unflattering review, finding the leadership of Maestro Zukerman uninspired and recalling superior performances of the main works by the orchestra in recent years. I was there on Thursday evening, and I found no fault with how anything was played. There's a lot to be said for a concert that's all "easy listening." But I was extremely annoyed by Zukerman's gesture when taking his bow at the end. He raised his hands about to shoulder level and made beckoning gestures with his fingers. The reviewer writes,

Taking his bows at the end of the night, Zukerman gestured to the crowd with his hands, as if to raise the level of the volume of the applause. There are other ways to do so.

I agree completely. The audience responded at once with cheers and much louder applause. I immediately walked out of the auditorium in disgust at the uncouth and unprofessional action. In my annoyance, I thought that Mr. Zukerman may have realized that his choice of unspectacular music didn't give the audience anything to go wild about, and maybe he thought the orchestra deserved a warmer ovation. (I later had the uncharitable thought that he chose pieces within his current capabilities as a violinist and as a conductor.) But it's an insult to the audience to tell them that they aren't applauding enough. I'm sorry many in the audience fell for it, and I wish I had had the presence of mind to boo the gesture before I left. Fortunately, if he does it again on Saturday, you won't see it over the radio or the internet.

Despite the unfortunate extraneous business at the end, I think the concert is worth listening to. You can do so over the radio and streaming facilities of WCRB — as you know by now, unless you're new to this blog. As usual, the … broadcast/webstream is on Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time…. The station's BSO page includes a link to an  … [interview with Maestro Zukerman.]

Enjoy.

(Edited for relevance.)

As was the case with last week's rebroadcast, the performance detail page is no longer accessible on the BSO website. At least, it's not in its usual place. And, as was the case in 2015, the Intelligncer doesn't have a review available. So, apart from the quote from the performance detail page, you have only a Globe review for a preview of the show. I still recommend listening to WCRB at 8:00.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/24

 This week WCRB gives us the concert of October 24, 2015, which I wrote about as follows:

This week it's members of the wind and string sections of the BSOperforming three pieces by Dvořák. Here's what the orchestra's performance detail page has to say about it:

The BSO's wind and string families perform conductor-less in this program of three works by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. The five-movement Serenade for Strings, is one of the composer's most familiar and popular pieces. In much the same vein of elegant entertainment is the Wind Serenade. The lesser-known but gorgeous Nocturne began life as the slow movement of a string quartet; its six-minute span is one of nearly unbroken melody.

(Some emphasis added.)

As always, that page has links to program notes, audio previews, and a podcast about the concert, but no performer bio this week: if you click on the thumbnail photo of the orchestra, you just get a larger photo. You'll note that once more the performance detail writer has taken the pieces out of the order in which they'll be performed. First it'll be the winds, then the Nocturne, and the String Serenade to conclude.

This program is only being given once, on Saturday, so there are no reviews of earlier performances since there were no earlier performances. But Dvořák isn't too tough to take, so I'm sure you'll find it enjoyable if you listen over the air or on line to WCRB at 8:00 p.m.

(Edited for relevance.)

To that they will add a performance of the Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition" which was part of a concert given on September 24, 2016. Here are the relevant parts of what I wrote back then:

It's opening night at Symphony, and they are giving an all-Russian program — a fairly short one, maybe because there are post-concert celebrations for the musicians and audience to get to (just my guess). The orchestra's performance detail page furnishes this description:

… The great orchestral showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition-Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's solo-piano impressions of a series of paintings and illustrations-closes the program. Ravel made this famous orchestration for legendary BSO conductor Serge Koussevitzky.

…

(Some emphasis added.)

The performance detail page also has links to a podcast featuring Maestro Nelsons, program notes, brief audio previews of the music, and performer bios (click on the thumbnail photo).

Since this is opening night, there are no reviews to link.…As for the "Pictures at an Exhibition," it must be good because so many people like it and it's so often performed. IMO, apart from "The Great Gate of Kiev," it's all quite forgettable, although it may well be very good as musical representation of the pictures in question. By the time they start playing, my brother's weekly phone call from Japan will be in progress, so I won't have to listen. Of course, it's always possible that this will be a performance for the ages, and all who hear it will count themselves among the blessed of the world. So, don't miss it.

If you can't get there, you can hear it over the radio or the internet via WCRB. Within radio range, tune in 99.5 or one of the other stations listed under the Ways to Listen tab. Outside the listening area, click the Listen Live button on the home page. The show begins at 8:00 p.m., Boston Time.

Enjoy.

The Intelligencer was very pleased with the performance of the Mussorgsky, and the Globe raved. I can't find a review of the Dvořák concert in either of them, but, as I said at the time, his music is usually pretty good.

So I recommend listening in to WCRB at 8:00, EDST.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/17

This evening, WCRB gives an encore broadcast of the concert given on March 7, 2020. It was last concert they gave in Symphony Hall before the pandemic forced a shutdown; and a couple of days ago the orchestra announced that the entire 2020-21 season has been cancelled. (Previously, they had only cancelled through December 31. So this evening you get to hear the last notes they will have played in Symphony Hall at least until September, 2021. (Maybe they'll be able to do something at Tanglewood next summer.)

And what, you may ask, was this concert, historic in its own way? Unfortunately, I only posted about it after the event, and that very briefly. Here, with appropriate edits, is what I said:

Last Saturday's concert was worth hearing … . It included a recent piece by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a Prokofiev piano concerto, and a Sibelius Symphony. See the performance detail page for more information. There was a favorab;e review in the Intelligencer; the Globe review was mixed.

This is how that performance detail page described it (note also the usual links):

Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu and the BSO are joined by the young Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, 2015 winner of the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition. In his BSO debut, he performs Prokofiev’s difficult but sparkling Piano Concerto No. 2. Hannu Lintu also leads the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, probably his most widely popular symphony. The composer’s folk-music-influenced but unique and sophisticated voice is clearly heard in this beloved piece. Lintu also introduces to the BSO repertoire music by the contemporary Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, whose work has a physical, protean power not unrelated to Sibelius’ music. She earned her doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, and her music has been performed by such ensembles as the New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin philharmonic orchestras.

(All emphasis added.)

The title of the Thorvaldsdottir piece, not given in the above excerpt, is "Metacosmos."

The reviews I mentioned are here for the Globe and here for the Intelligencer.

So definitely, give it a listen if you can this evening at 8:00 over WCRB.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/10

This evening WCRB encores the concert of February 29, 2020. I was at the Thursday performance, but I was away that weekend and didn't post about it before I left. Here's what the performance detail page says:

Costa Rican conductor and frequent BSO guest Giancarlo Guerrero returns to lead soloist Johannes Moser in the first BSO performances since 1997 of English composer William Walton’s Cello Concerto, which Gregor Piatigorsky premiered with the orchestra in 1957 under Charles Munch. Opening the concert is the young British composer Helen Grime’s Limina, a BSO commission to be premiered at Tanglewood in 2019. Although French composer Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem is frequently performed in Europe and the U.S., its only previous complete BSO performances were in November 1983. Duruflé was one of Paris’s great church organists of the 20th century. His lovely and often powerful Requiem setting, which features organ, is based firmly on the tradition of Catholic liturgical music.

(Some emphasis added.)

The reviewer in the Globe was generally pleased with the performance. He found the Walton, although20th Century music, quite non-threatening, and the Durufle a gem. The Intelligencer was disappointed in the Grimes, quite satisfied with the Walton, and very pleased with the Durufle, finding the latter two well performed. It seems the trouble with the Grimes was more with the music itself than with how it was played.

Overall, it seems likely you'll enjoy the Walton and the Durufle. Why not see what the curtain raiser from Grime is really like. You can have it all by tuning in to WCRB on air or via internet this evening at 8:00, Boston Time.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/10/03

This evening WCRB presents the Boston Symphony concert of February 22, 2020. Here's what I posted back then:

And we're back live from Symphony Hall this evening. Here's the description on the orchestra's performance detail page (where you can also find links to background material, as well as a listing of the order in which the works are actually to be performed):

The eminent violinist Pinchas Zukerman conducts this beautifully balanced program, which also features him as soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, one of the composer’s earliest masterpieces, written when he was 19. Richard Strauss’ surprisingly deft, precocious Serenade for 13 winds dates from 1881, when he was only 17. The Bruckner Adagio, played here by string orchestra, is the second movement of his String Quintet, his most substantial piece of chamber music. Concluding these concerts is Haydn’s Symphony No. 49, from 1768, which may be derived from music he wrote for the theater (the nickname was not the composer’s). The BSO’s only previous performances of this piece were in 1979 at Symphony Hall and 1988 at Tanglewood.

(Emphasis added.)

The program was given, without the Bruckner, on Friday evening; and there is a favorable review in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. There is nothing yet in the Globe, and I wasn't there last night.

I don't think I've ever heard the pieces by Strauss and Bruckner, but I'm looking forward to hearing them this evening, and of course the Haydn and Mozart are very good. So tune your computer or your radio to WCRB at 8:00 p.m, Boston Time for some good music. ….

Subsequently, a review appeared in the Globe in which the reviewer found the whole concert (on Friday, which omitted the Bruckner) plodding, lacking in the panache, verve, joie de vivre, élan vital, and the certain je ne sais quoi which should characterize BSO performances. Hopefully they were more with it in the Saturday performance which we'll hear.

My memory of the original performance is hazy, but I seem to remember it was good, so I still suggest listening in.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/09/26

It looks as if WCRB has a pattern, for now. This week's encore broadcast is from January 26, 2020. Last week's, was from January 18, and I think the previous two were also from January. Pattern or no, I was very hurried back on January 25. Here's all I wrote:

The Dvořák is a familiar "warhorse." The stuff before the intermission could be interesting. Performance detail says:

Continuing the BSO’s cycle of music by Dmitri Shostakovich, Music Director Andris Nelsons conducts Rudolf Barshai’s string-orchestra arrangement of the composer’s Eighth String Quartet, Op. 110 (1960), which the composer suggested was his most autobiographical work. (Barshai was an important conductor and champion of Shostakovich’s music; Op. 110a was the first and most important of several arrangements of Shostakovich’s string quartets.) Completing the program are Samuel Barber’s Medea’s Mediation and Dance of Vengeance, a 15-minute concert work excerpted from a 1946 ballet score for the choreographer Martha Graham, and Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony, the most important piece he composed during his years in the U.S., when he was director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. The beloved four-movement symphony uses musical elements shared by both North American and Czech folk music

(Some emphasis added.)

It's too late for me to find and link reviews. It's on WCRB this evening [at 8:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight time] ….

Now I have time to look for reviews. The one in the Intelligencer is a rave, above all for the Dvořák. The Globe was decidedly less enthusiastic, but didn't find anything really wrong. It may be that the Saturday performance —the one we'll hear and the one reviewed in the Intelligencer — was that much better than the one the Globe reviewer heard on Thursday night.

Anyway, enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/09/19

This week's BSO encore broadcast on WCRB is the concert of January 18, 2020. Here's my take on it from back then:

There is new music (pretty good, IMO), familiar Mozart music, and unfamiliar Tchaikovsky music in this week's Boston Symphony concert. The performance detail page (for once listing the pieces in the order they will be performed — now that wasn't so hard, was it?) tells us:

Making his subscription series debut with these concerts, BSO Assistant Conductor Yu-An Chang, who is from Taiwan, leads the world premiere of a new BSO-commissioned work by the prominent Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Chi-sun Lee. Austrian pianist Till Fellner makes his second appearances with the BSO as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, the biggest, most symphonic, and most contrapuntally intricate of his concertos. Compared to his five other symphonies, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 (the nickname “Polish” was not the composer’s own) is rarely performed; the BSO last played it in Symphony Hall in 1995. The symphony is, unusually, in five movements, three of which are strongly dance-oriented.

(All emphasis added.)

The title of the new piece is "Formosan Triptych," and there is plenty of descriptive material available via links from the performance detail page, WCRB, and the Boston Musical Intelligencer.

I couldn't be there on Thursday, but I exchanged my ticket and attended the Friday afternoon performance, which I enjoyed. The "Formosan Triptych" was never unpleasant to listen to. I caught some of what the program notes mention ( e.g., horn player Jason Snider and tuba player Mike Roylance blowing through their instruments), but other things I could only guess at. Even if the criticisms in the Intelligencer are fair, I wasn't at all unhappy with what I heard in the Mozart and Tchaikovsky. BTW, the conductor was very animated, using big, fluid gestures to direct the orchestra.

The review in the Globe expresses dissatisfaction with how the Tchaikovsky was performed, but likes the Mozart. Of course, with a world premiere, a critic is in no position to say they got it wrong, and the reviews are mainly descriptive. As hinted earlier, the Intelligencer's reviewer was dissatisfied with how both the Mozart and Tchaikovsky were performed. On the Intelligencer's front page, you can also find interview articles with Ms. Lee and Mr. Fellner.

I think you'll like this concert, so I recommend listening over WCRB at 8:00, Boston Time, this evening[…].

The WCRB page for the concert also has a link to an interview with the conductor, which could make interesting listening.

Enjoy.

BSO/Classical New England — 2020/09/12

Tonight's encore performance is of a concert originally given earlier this year, on January 11. Here's what I wrote at the time (edited to remove material no longer relevant):

This evening the BSO gives us a Francophile's delight (unless your taste in French music runs more to Marc-Antoine Charpentier or Hector Berlioz): a French conductor, a French organist, and three French composers. Details and links are to be found, appropriately, on the orchestra's performance detail page, where we read:

French conductor Alain Altinoglu, who first conducted the BSO in spring 2017, returns with an all-French program featuring the debut of the outstanding French organist Thierry Escaich in two works showcasing the Symphony Hall organ. Francis Poulenc described his ambitious 1938 Organ Concerto as being close in intent to his religious music. The concerto was given its American premiere by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops with organist E. Power Biggs in 1941 in Symphony Hall. Closing the program is Camille Saint-Saëns’ popular, exuberant Symphony No. 3, which features the organ as a solo and orchestral instrument. Altinoglu also leads his own orchestral suite of music from Claude Debussy’s uniquely gorgeous and probing operatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande.

(Some emphasis added.)

The Thursday concert was part of my subscription, but it was a cold night at the end of a cold snap, and Debussy and Poulenc aren't my favorite composers, and I've heard  the Saint-Saëns several times,so I decided to stay home. The rave reviews in the Globe and the Intelligencer tell me that I made a big mistake and that we should all be listening when WCRB broadcasts and streams it … this evening at 8:00 EST. … Check out their website for links to more about the concert, as well as other programming.

It certainly seems worth listening to.